SaimasCharityTravels

“Layton Rahmatullah Benevolent Trust, or LRBT is Pakistan’s largest non government organisation working to fight blindness in the country.
Established in 1984, it is based in Karachi with hospitals and primary eye care centres throughout the country.”

Wednesday morning a small pick up van arrived to take me to the LRBT eye hospital in a poor town called Korangi in Karachi.  I was advised there are many poor people and the town itself is filled with masses of undisposed rubbish, roaming cattle in very poor and unsanitary conditions.  The drive from home to the hospital took around 60mins as the traffic conditions in Karachi are so bad, every route is congested and constant traffic made up of cars, bikes, rickshaws, the homeless, beggars wondering amongst the traffic begging for money or selling items in hope someone will give them more than the asking price, knowing they are poor and need to eat or feed their families.

We drove in very humid conditions, the temperature rising to a hot 31degrees at 9.45am in a car with no air-conditioning, windows open with nothing but dusty air being blown into the car and what looked like a manually fitted house fan that was circulating the hot air and dust around the vehicle.

Once we arrived at the hospital, the Director Dr Mahwash Khan was waiting to receive me at the main entrance.  I was advised the staff were very excited about my arrival and this in turn made me feel very relaxed and very welcomed, their greeting and attitude was most hospitable which i hadn’t quite anticipated.

Dr Khan took me into her office where i was offered a drink before the tour began, we discussed my expectations and the work i have done to date in Africa and South America, we also discussed what i would like to see and who i would like to meet etc before we began our tour.  I was also given a brief about the hospital, the type and number of patients who come to this hospital and the number of staff members and volunteers who form the hospital in its entirety.

We started off with a tour of the main building, this was made up of three floors, the first floor was where patients would come to register, they would give their details and a basic eye test is performed.  This would determine how serious their eye sight is and whether or not they would need to put forward for immediate operation.

The queues were as i imagined and the waiting rooms were full with patients, some were coming back for operations and LRBT ensure that no-one has to wait longer than 2months if they need medical attention which is not so serious and patients are seen within a week if the diagnosis is a lot more serious.  On average LRBT have 1200 patients a day come into the hospital, and based on the time they are given an appointment or treated 2months or less is an incredible timescale and a reason this free service to poor and poverty stricken individuals should be commended for its ability to help so many.

LRBT are very much dependent on donations made by organisations and individuals like myself, as this is a charitable organisation provided free of charge to the less fortunate who are in desperate need of eye care and this is for all age groups not just adults.  This organisation is remarkable and should be very proud of the work they do.

From the waiting areas to where the patients are tested, as above we saw some of the consultants doing tests to determine the seriousness of each case, quite often if there is a family history of eye sight problems, or diabetes or other medical problems then at this point they would get checked.  The majority of the equipment is donated form organisations but 1 or 2 of the items are never enough, as with only few medical equipment items the number of patients that can be treated is limited which is why LRBT are dependent of such donations.

I was quite surprised with how open the treatment rooms were, but the consultants and the offered facilities are certainly advantageous to the patients as without this charitable organisation the Korangi village and people within Karachi would see blindness triple in numbers and there would not be such services available to the poor people of this city, the work LRBT do for these people is amazing.

Pictures above are taken from the operating theatre, several operations were taking place at the time we were visiting, some of which were due to donations made personally by myself to help those unable to pay for cataract operations.  I had donated enough money to LRBT for 8 adults to receive cataract operations.

We also were granted permission to photograph a 5year girl who was from a very poor community and thanks to LRBT she was able to be treated immediately for cataract operation.  She didn’t seem phased by anyone there at all and was a very brave soul.

My next stop was the local school i had made a donation to, for children to have their eyes screened for any problems.